Why promote classical music?

Consider the following rather well accepted propositions:

1. Genuine appreciation of classical/art music requires a level of intelligence higher than that of the majority of the population. Specifically, it requires a level of intelligence higher than that of all persons who enjoy other(non-classical/art music) forms of "music".

2. All persons who are capable of appreciating classical music will be naturally drawn to it as soon as they first hear it.

Given this, why bother promoting classical music in the first place? If someone is able to appreciate classical music, then they likely already are. Promoting classical music to people who do not already listen to it is therefore pointless except amongst the very young, and people who have lived extremely isolated lives.

Write Comment / 0 commentsNovember 03, 2008, 04:12:56 AM by Subclassical

The Future of Classical Music

Is anyone else of the opinion that contemporary 'classical' music needs to find its expressive voice again? Serious music in the 20th century saw serialism become the dominant way of structuring music as composers (particularly Schoenberg) struggled to move on from the extreme chromaticism of music of the late 19th century. But, in my view at least, serialism destroyed music's ability to communicate. Music has to evolve naturally, not to have some artificial method imposed upon it. Music, ultimately, is answerable to the ear. If the ear is not in tune with the mind then we simply don't want to listen to it. I think tonality was a great gift squandered by 20th century composers. Without losing artistic integrity, without cheapening classical music, and without losing the challenge that is often presented by new music, I think we should make our way back to tonality.

Write Comment / 0 commentsOctober 19, 2008, 06:26:51 PM by yourforte

'Sound' Common Sense

The concert hall, the CD

Both uneconomic and impractical the thought of inviting a full symphony orchestra into our living room, when the whim overtakes us to hear music al original.

Now that audio electronics has developed to such an advanced stage one might have thought the next alternative would be to invest, just once, in a super Hi Fi system and begin a collection of CD recordings.
Unfortunately, the development of Hi Fi has been retrograde. If we consider the most important component, the loudspeaker, such a device is the nearest imitation to the instruments of the orchestra and therefore needs to be solid and of a reasonable size. It would be useless to fit double bass strings to a violin and expect to hear glorious rich bass sounds.
The industry has taken a different approach suggesting that we fill our rooms with many small plastic boxes then tell our friends that we now have surround sound; so what.
Most amplifiers and CD players...

Write Comment / 0 commentsSeptember 14, 2008, 08:09:47 AM by geoffrey terry

Meastro

Did anyone watch the Meastro series on BBC2? I thought it was fantastic and really glad Perkins won. My original tip was Goldie but Perkins really excelled and threw herself into the music. I thought she led the orchestra extremely well and thoroughly deserved to win.

Overall the series was a real hit I thought and really helps to promote classical music to the masses

thoughts anyone?

Write Comment / 2 commentsSeptember 11, 2008, 12:35:37 PM by tgreen

New Board

You may have noticed that the board looks a little different. More like a Blog.

I have changed from the YaBB board that is gradually being deprecated to SMF which is the new board. As always, if you find any problems or the dreaded SPAM messages please let me know.

It has some nice touches including allowing youtube videos (and others) to be displayed in the message so if you find any interesting videos please post the link and the board should automatically do the rest.

The latest postings appear on the main entry page; to read more click on the General Board category on the right of the page.

Thanks once again for all your support.

Chris

Write Comment / 0 commentsSeptember 02, 2008, 01:54:14 PM by Chris Caspell